Machine-readable calibration certificates issued in a joint pilot showed how laboratories can exchange trusted measurement data without retyping a single value.
Calibration certificates are still mostly printed documents, and their contents are typed again into customer systems, with the risk of error that brings. Digital Calibration Certificates carry the same information in a structured, signed format that software can read directly.
Three institutes volunteered for an AFRIMETS pilot, supported by a working group that agreed on the data fields, the digital signature approach and a validation tool. Each institute issued certificates for a set of reference instruments and exchanged them with the others.
Our customers asked for data they can trust and reuse. The pilot showed that we can give them exactly that.
The pilot proved that certificates could be issued, verified and imported between institutes using different laboratory software, and identified the terminology that needed aligning before wider adoption.
A regional guidance note and a free validation tool are now available to member institutes planning their own introduction of digital certificates.